by Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia - Noelle Pikus-Pace made her skeleton comeback a family affair.

Knowing the competitive embers still burned but also knowing she didn't want to spend winters in Europe on the World Cup circuit away from her husband, Janson, and two kids, Lacee and Traycen, Pikus-Pace came out of retirement two years and traveled with her family.

"I thought she could compete at her best potential with the family there," Janson said. "It's a sacrifice, and it's really hard to do it alone and leave everyone and be by herself."

For the past two World Cup seasons, they traveled from mountain winter wonderland to mountain winter wonderland in hopes that Friday ended with medal at the Sochi Olympics.

It did.

But the road to silver in the women's skeleton was more complicated than anyone knew.

Pikus-Pace took two official training runs to qualify for the event, then skipped the final four sessions to rest. U.S. skeleton officials blamed her missed training runs on a bad back, which bothered Pikus-Pace this season. But that was not a problem this week. She had concussion-like symptoms sustained when she hit her head during an unofficial training run last week. She dealt with vision problems and vertigo, she said.

She said she was so tired Thursday that she fell asleep after the first run and was awakened by a volunteer minutes before her second run.

U.S. skeleton coach Tuffy Latour said he was informed that Pikus-Pace was cleared by medical staff to race.

"My back has bothered me, but my federation was just trying to protect me from media. To protect me for this race," Pikus-Pace said. "I just can't bear to talk about my back anymore since that was not my reason for not sliding."

When asked about her back after the second heat on Thursday, Pikus-Pace cited herniated disks but answered hesitantly as she looked at a skeleton public relations official.

"But honestly, I felt my best, and I felt very good today," she said after the race.

With her husband and two children in attendance and riding a sled designed and built by Janson, Pikus-Pace was at her best at the Sanki Sliding Center.

"With my family here, and the love and support, it's beyond words," said Pikus-Pace, who said she had concussion-like symptoms after hitting her head during an unofficial training run last week.

Life's emotions emptied. She thought it about what she went through and what it took to win a medal. The two children she had while trying to make Olympic teams. The bobsled that hit her as she stood on the end of track in Calgary in 2005, fracturing her right leg and ending her 2006 Torino Olympics dream. Missing bronze by one-tenth of a second at the 2010 Vancouver Games. A miscarriage.

"Many tears were shed," Pikus-Pace said. "If I hadn't gone through every single one of those things, I would not be here today, and this is right where I want to be."

Uncontrollable tears of joy ran her into her smile.

Pikus-Pace finished behind gold medalist Lizzy Yarnold of Great Britain, who completed the four heats in 3:52.89. Pikus-Pace finished in 3:53.86. The gold capped a breakout season for Yarnold, who also won the World Cup overall title. She led by 0.44 seconds after the first two runs, then opened Friday's racing by adding another one-third of a second to her lead to essentially clinch the gold.

Uhlaender had her struggles, too. She lost her father, Ted Uhlaender, a year before the 2010 Vancouver Games. She admitted she was "mentally unstable" and "lost" without her father around to guide her. She needed knee surgeries after snowmobiling and skiing accidents.

Former Olympic skier Picabo Street stepped in to mentor and mentor her. But Uhlaender sustained a concussion during a training run just before the 2013-14 season. She missed six weeks and when she return to the ice, her vision wasn't the same and she didn't feel right.

But she came here feeling better than she had all season and comfortable racing on this track. Uhlaender entered the third heat in fourth place and the final heat in fifth place. Four-hundredths of a second. It's only noticeable by high-tech timekeeping.

"My dreams came true and then I realized I was four-hundredths away, that about sums it up," Uhlaender said. "I put everything I had out there and I just started going through everything in my head, 'What if I hadn't had a concussion? What if I had slid more this season? What if my ranking hadn't been so low and I started in the Top 10?'"

"I feel like I slid my heart out. I don't think there was anything else I could have done."

In an incredibly bittersweet and tender moment, a tearful Uhlaender hugged Lacee just before she addressed news reporters.

When Pikus-Pace reached reporters, she had no idea Uhlaender was so close to a medal.

When told, she said, "Nooooo. Oh noooo. Wow, she laid it down. Oh, I've got to go find her and give her a hug."

Just minutes before Pikus-Pace's final run, she had tweeted from the start house, "My final goals for my last and final run of my career...see you at the bottom!"

At the bottom, awaited her medal that she thought would never come after retiring four years ago. She had made it to the Olympics, reached her goal and was ready spend more time with her family. She said she envisioned a life of PTA meetings, soccer practices, baking cookies and making fudge.

"I was ready to move on to a new chapter," she said.

In the back of Janson's mind, he wasn't so sure.

"Well, I don't know," Janson remembers thinking. "I think there could be something better. It was this. It was taking the family and traveling together."

Said Noelle: "My husband is a rock star, with him by my side, we can do it all."